While this isn't exactly on the topic of breastfeeding, so many nursing moms use slings that I thought it would be good to showcase this video response to the CPSC's recent sling warning. It was made Meg, by our local babywearing expert, who a few years ago did a video for the blog on nursing in a Hot Sling.
I think that Meg does a good job of explaining which kinds of slings are the object of concern, and which positions in slings are safe.
Viola Lennon, one of the seven founding members of La Leche League, passed away last week at the age of 86.
Viola was one of the "revolutionaries who wore pearls," who dared to talk about breastfeeding at a time when newspapers wouldn't even print the word breast (hence the name La Leche League) and the medical establishment scoffed at the idea. Her efforts, like those of the other founders and the thousands of women who followed in her footsteps, was a driving force behind making breastfeeding accepted, valued, and even normal, in the U.S. and around the world.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports in her obituary:
When other women met the co-author of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding --
soon in an eighth edition -- it wasn't unusual for them to hug her,
said her daughter Maureen Lennon Zeeb. At a La Leche conference in
Mackinac Island, "This woman literally dropped her bags when she saw my
mother and was weeping. She came up to my mother and said, 'You don't
know how you changed my life.' People would ask us if we wouldn't mind
if they got a picture taken with her. They wanted her autograph."
Though Mrs. Lennon and other founders of the League were rock stars
in the world of mothering, they remained humble as they marveled at how
their group had grown.
"Every single thing we were advocating then is now standard
pediatric practice -- to nurse soon after birth and to nurse
frequently, instead of on a rigid schedule," said Mary Lofton, an early
member.
In 2007 Edwina Froehlich, another of the founding members, passed away. For those of you interested in the early days of La Leche League, and the founding members' struggles to support breastfeeding, I'd highly recommend The Revolutionaries Wore Pearls.
And the video below on the founders, which includes a great clip of Princess Grace's speech to the 1971 La Leche League conference, is also great.
PBS has been showing a new series called This Emotional Life recently. I caught the first episode, which was largely about attachment.
In this episode they showed some footage from the classic rhesus monkey experiments on attachment, conducted in the 1950's and 60's. I had read about the experiments but had never seen any video on them, and it was so striking to see the footage. I've posted a clip (not from the show's website) below.
In these experiments, baby rhesus monkeys were taken from their mothers at birth and raised with no physical contact. They were then given the choice between two "mothers," a wire mother which had a bottle which could feed the monkey, and a cloth monkey which couldn't feed the monkey but felt soft.
The monkeys would consistently run to the feeding mother for food, but would spend all of the rest of the time clinging to the cloth mother. What isn't shown in the clip below is that after being deprived of any real social and physical interaction, they also grew up to be quite emotionally disturbed.
What can we take from this related to breastfeeding? A lot, I think.
For me, the message is: it's not just about the milk. No doubt you know how special breastmilk is - full of species specific perfectly composed nutrition, immune protection tailored to the pathogens in each mother and baby's environment, and proven to protect against numerous threats to infant and maternal health. But that's only part of what makes breastfeeding special. The other part is the nursing relationship - a closeness and means of attachment which occurs when a baby feeds.
I think that this message is valuable to at least two groups of people. First, for all of the partners who feel frustrated because they're unable to feed their babies (at least before a bottle is introduced, if it is). The message to them, I think, is that bonding isn't really about food. Babies bond with people who make them feel secure and loved. And that's what happens when you walk the halls in the middle of the night, holding your baby. You don't need to make milk to do that.
I think it's also a message for mothers who can't breastfeed exclusively. Sometimes I see mothers who have to use a supplemental nursing system - that clunky bottle/tube contraption which allows supplementation at the breast - or who supplement after feedings. No doubt they've wondered if the whole production is worth it when their babies aren't getting all of their nutrition by feeding at the breast. I think that the message from these studies is that any time at the breast has value. Or, as someone recently put it to me, there is such a thing as mothering at the breast.
This isn't meant at all as a dig at women who exclusively pump, and who obviously bond with their babies, too!
Above all, the message I take from these studies is best summed up by British pediatrician Donald Winnicott, who said, "There is no such thing as a baby. There is a baby and someone."
Thanks to a post on Lactnet, I got to see this trailer, and thought you'd enjoy it. No breastfeeding in the trailer, but I'm sure there will be some in the film.
I'm confident of this in part because the film profiles one family in Mongolia. A few months ago Mothering Magazine featured an article written by an American (or Canadian?) mom living in Mongolia, and it described in sometime hilarious detail how strong the breastfeeding culture is there. I've been hoping that they'd post it on their site so I could share it with you.
(Note: If you're reading this in a blog reader and can't see the clip, go to the blog site to view the trailer. It's worth it.)
Thanks to Crunchy Domestic Goddess, I learned of this unfortunate story of a mom forced to leave a Target store for nursing in public. She and her husband (a police officer himself) were told that nursing in public is illegal in Michigan. It isn't. But the law in the state doesn't protect a mother should an establishment decide to force a mother to leave. (For more on breastfeeding in public and the law, check out this podcast)
Fortunately, legislation is in the works which would guarantee the right of mothers to nurse in public in any location they are otherwise authorized to be. Currently, Michigan's only law on breastfeeding exempts breastfeeding from indecent exposure laws. Representative Warren has introduced House Bill 5515, a bill which would allow a woman to breastfeed anywhere she may otherwise legally be.
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It's Sesame Street's 40th anniversary this week, and I thought I'd link back to posts I've done with breastfeeding videos from the show, just in case you missed any!
I've been catching up on a few shows while waiting for H1N1 to run its course, and I found a clip on the Colbert Report which I thought you'd appreciate. Sorry about the ad that precedes it.
Speaking of pumping and working, here's a recent clip of Modern Family actress Julie Bowen on The View, describing pumping on the way to work for her twins.
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Some of you - you know who you are - have been reading this blog since the beginning, and some of you are new to it.
For everyone, but especially to those of you who are new to the blog, I thought I'd list some of my favorite posts from the nearly 700 I've posted since September of 2006:
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In introducing this story about the Ohio mother fired from Totes/Isotoner for pumping, CNN anchor Campbell Brown mentioned that she is pumping twice a day for her baby.
It was also interesting to hear the mother in the case describe how she saw employees taking bathroom and smoking breaks with no reprimand. The Ohio Supreme Court found that her termination was lawful because it was for failure to follow directions (and did not rule on the question of pregnancy discrimination), but apparently there are no sanctions for employees who take such breaks for other reasons. Sound like pregnancy discrimination to you?
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